Former University of Alabama Athletic Director Mal Moore dead at 73

Sunday

Mar 31, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 31, 2013 at 10:07 AM

Former University of Alabama Athletic Director Mal Moore dead at 73

By Cecil HurtSports Editor

TUSCALOOSA | Ten days after stepping down from the athletic directorship at the University of Alabama, Mal Moore — the former backup quarterback who became an administrator and led UA back to national prominence in athletics — died Saturday morning at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.Moore was hospitalized March 10 in Birmingham for treatment of pulmonary problems. On March 13, he was transferred to Duke Medical Center, where he died Saturday morning. “There's no question we have lost a great man today,” Alabama football coach Nick Saban said in a statement Saturday. “What won't be lost is Mal's legacy in serving our university to make it a better place today and in the future. Nobody genuinely cared more about the Crimson Tide than Mal did. Mal has positively impacted athletics at Alabama unlike anyone ever has or probably ever will.“We can talk about all the championships Mal has been involved with, but I think what will be remembered most was the man he was. He always put the best interests of others ahead of his own, he carried himself as a first-class gentleman, and he helped bring out the best in those around him. Mal was an outstanding leader in terms of all he did for Alabama athletics. Most importantly, he was a great friend to me and my family. Mal was the number one reason we decided to make the move to Tuscaloosa.”Moore was a popular administrator who symbolized, for thousands of Alabama fans, the bridge between the Paul “Bear” Bryant era and the current football success under Saban. His time at UA began when athletics (and the school) were racially segregated and when women did not participate in varsity sports. By the end of his tenure, athletes of all races and both genders were part of the athletic mainstream at Alabama, participating at a national championship level.“Mal Moore was a champion by every measure, and his impact on his alma mater and his native state will be felt for many years to come,” said Robert Witt, chancellor of the University of Alabama System. “We greatly respect his constant commitment to excellence, his unwavering professional and personal integrity, and his lifetime of exemplary service.”UA President Judy Bonner called Moore “a transformational figure, a true visionary and a real friend to all who worked at the University of Alabama and loved it.”Moore was born on Dec. 19, 1939, in the small Crenshaw County town of Dozier, where he became a star athlete, signing with the Crimson Tide out of high school.“Dozier was a small school, but Coach Bryant took a chance,” Moore said in a 2011 interview, adding with a wry smile that “we didn't have scholarship limits then, fortunately.”Moore never became a star, although he did impress Bryant with his football acumen, enough to earn a spot as a graduate assistant on the 1962 Crimson Tide. After serving one year on the staff at Montana State, Moore returned to join Bryant's staff, coaching quarterbacks and serving as offensive coordinator.“Coach Bryant had great respect for Mal's coaching abilities,” recalled Gene Stallings, who served as an assistant coach during Moore's playing days and later hired Moore on his staffs with the Cardinals in the National Football League and, later, at Alabama. “After I became a head coach (at Texas A&M), Coach Bryant used to call me and say, ‘Don't you forget that Mal is just as good a coach as you are.'“When Mal worked for me at Arizona, he had been at Notre Dame and came straight from college. Now, it is extremely hard for anyone who has never played or coached pro ball to gain the respect of some veteran players. But it didn't take long for him to do that.”Moore returned to Tuscaloosa with Stallings in 1990 and was the offensive coordinator of the 1992 national championship team. He moved into athletic administration in 1992 and, after being passed over for the athletic director job in 1996, was selected by then-UA president Andrew Sorensen to take that post in 1999.Despite the imminent onset of an onerous NCAA probation, Moore led major capital-donation and construction projects that helped UA maintain a competitive position in the Southeastern Conference. By the end of Moore's tenure as athletic director, he had overseen some $240 million in capital improvements at UA.Moore held the distinction of being a part of 10 national championship teams as a player, coach and athletic director (1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011 and 2012), 16 SEC championships and 39 bowl trips. He is the only individual connected with the Crimson Tide program — and likely the only person in collegiate athletics — to be a part of 10 national football championships.He was equally proud, he said last summer, of five other NCAA championships won by UA athletics during his tenure as AD: three by the gymnastics program and, in 2012, the school's first NCAA titles in softball and women's golf. He was most noted, though, for his November 2006 decision to replace Mike Shula as Alabama's head football coach and — after a sometimes agonizing monthlong search — the hiring of Saban, who has gone on to build a dynasty at UA, winning three of the last four Bowl Championship Series national titles.“I was in Miami and had visited with Coach Saban and was sitting in a cab outside his house waiting for an answer,” Moore said in an interview last January in south Florida as Alabama was preparing for the BCS title game. “I told the driver that if Coach Saban said ‘yes,' we would be going back up to the house. He said, ‘What if he says ‘no,' and I said ‘Can you take this cab to Cuba?' ”Moore was married for 41 years to the former Charlotte Davis before her death in 2010. She had battled Alzheimer's for 20 years and, in 2012, Caring Days, a Tuscaloosa program for adults with memory disorders, honored the Moores by naming its new 11,000-square-foot facility the Mal and Charlotte Moore Center.In 2007, as a permanent tribute to his lifelong contribution to the University of Alabama, the UA board of trustees officially dedicated the facility formerly known as the Football Building as the Mal M. Moore Athletic Building. In 2011, Moore was elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a coach and an administrator. After the completion of the 2011-12 academic and athletic seasons, Moore was named the winner of the John L. Toner Award, given to the nation's best athletic director. Moore was involved in the selection of his successor, his former college teammate Bill Battle, as UA athletic director, who was appointed March 22, two days after Moore stepped down. “The University of Alabama and the world of intercollegiate athletics have lost a legend, and I have lost a dear friend,” Battle said. “My heart goes out to his family and close friends in this time of sadness. After a time of grieving, we can begin to celebrate Mal's life, as his legacy will last for generations.”During Moore's tenure, Alabama produced national championship teams in football, gymnastics, softball and women's golf as well as Southeastern Conference championships in football, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, men's and women's golf, men's cross country and softball. Alabama athletes earned some of the highest honors the SEC and NCAA have to offer, including SEC Athlete of the Year, SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, NCAA Top VIII awards, which recognize athletes for success on the field, in the classroom and in the community, NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships and NCAA Sportsperson of the Year. In addition to making his mark on Alabama, Moore also had a national impact as a key member of several prestigious NCAA and college football committees. He served on the NCAA Division I Football Issues Committee, the SEC Athletic Directors Bowl Advisory Committee and the Big Six Conferences Minority Coaches Forum.He is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Steve (Heather) Cook of Scottsdale, Ariz., a granddaughter, Anna Lee, and a grandson, Charles Cannon. Funeral arrangements are pending.